I couldn't make this up...

"Mister Clary, is you Catholic?"

"Yes."

"So, do you call it Christmas, or do you call it Hanukkah?"

"Um. Christmas. Catholics are Christians, not Jews."

Another note to me on a quiz...

...from one of my favorites:

"Forgot about the test. Couldn't think. It's my faulght. I'm sorry."

I almost wanted to pass him for apologizing to me...

Had this written on a quiz today

"Note: I have never been good at states. If we are going to continue with these quizzes, please give me another way to study."

I feel partially responsible for helping this student out, but at the same time...whose responsibility is it to come up with an effective way to study information?

Rest of the day

The rate at which my 7th graders did their homework last night stayed constant across the board in my other classes as well. I was not pleased. I think I'm starting to get through to a couple of my kids, so that feels good. More later...

Class of 26 people???

11 of my 7th graders turned in their homework today. It was really easy. Copying 10 definitions. We were going to play games in class with them today, but instead, I just told them to get every definition copied by the end of class. So, 25 landforms and their definitions. In 30 minutes. We'll see how many finish for a 50% on their homework.

You know, sometimes a mediocre day can be made all better with one humorous line:

A little background: There is a sketchy gas station across the street from school. Legit drug deals go down all the time there. The football team always wants to run across the street to get Gatorade and snacks from it before practice. They aren't allowed. So, I found out about this yesterday and went to Wal-Mart to get a ton of Gatorade and granola bars. They got smaller Gatorades and chips from the gas station for more money, so I thought it'd be fine to have healthier snacks and more Gatorade for less. I explained this to the class. One girl raised her hand (for once). Imagine the following line coming from an attitude-filled girl in my class:

"Yes ma'am?"
"Mr. Clary, I don't wanna be a racist or nothing, but...well...black people don't eat granola bars."

It was all I could do to keep from rolling on the ground laughing. Luckily I kept a (relatively) straight face, and dismissed class for the day.

Wow

Our really super-cool school counselor even had trouble with my 7th grade class today. They are crazy sometimes (often).

Yesterday, my cooking partner and I found out at around 5pm that it was our night for dinner. We threw together some tacos, rice, and beans. It went over pretty well. I loved it - it is one of my favorite meals ever. We have new partners starting next week. I'm keeping Tuesday, but I'm with someone else. She's really on top of things, so I think we'll be good.

School's been going pretty well this week. I have found that if it takes us 3 days to do what I thought we could do in 1, then that's OK. If my students don't come in quietly at first, it will lead to a loud and disrespectful period. So we go back in the hallway and practice walking in again. And again. And again. Until they do it quietly. They hate it, they get quiet, and they realize I'm serious. I feel good because they ultimately do come in quietly and we have a good start to class (albeit 10 minutes later than it should start).

I've also started writing students' names on the board to track their misbehavior. They don't really like it, I can discipline without stopping class, and I have something at the end of the day that reminds me what to write down in my permanent discipline records. Apparently one of my housemates has a "treasure box" which is the opposite of my names on the board. Each time your name gets on the board, your name goes in a drawing for a reward at the end of the week. Apparently it works really well. I'm thinking about doing that starting next week.

I'm really looking forward to a long weekend. I am not quite sure I know what I'll do for all three days of the weekend, but I'm sure I'll figure it out!